Two alumni, both University of Vermont College of Medicine faculty members, were recognized with the Service to Medicine and Community Award at the Medical Alumni Association’s “Celebration of Achievements – Legends and Leaders” event held on Friday, June 6, 2014 in the Davis Auditorium.

The Service to Medicine and Community Award, established in 1984, is presented to alumni who have maintained a high standard of medical service and who have achieved an outstanding record of community service or assumed other significant responsibilities in addition to their medical practice.

Martin Koplewitz, M.D.’52, associate professor of surgery emeritus, was a charter member of the (AOA) Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Following a rotating internship at the Beth Israel Hospital in New York, he entered military service, serving at the Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash., for two years as officer in charge of the surgical wards and acting chief of the surgical service. Koplewitz subsequently returned to Vermont, finishing his surgical residency in 1959, and establishing a private surgical practice in St. Albans. In partnership with one of his mentors, the late Arthur Gladstone, M.D., former chief of surgery at the DeGoesbriand Hospital, he joined the UVM College of Medicine faculty of in April 1973 and was rapidly promoted to associate professor with tenure. Koplewitz served as an exemplary role model for students and residents during his more than three decades of clinical teaching, and was well regarded for his compassionate manner with both patients and colleagues.

UVM College of Medicine alumnus Michael Upton, M.D.’94, is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the UVM College of Medicine and a Counseling and Psychiatry Services (CAPS) staff psychiatrist in UVM’s Center for Health and Wellbeing. A native Vermonter, his family includes four generations of UVM College of Medicine graduates dating back to the 1890s. After completing a psychiatric residency at Dartmouth, he returned to Burlington to practice in 1998. Upton’s clinical interests include diagnostic evaluation, medication management and brief psychotherapy models. He has worked in a number of settings, including inpatient psychiatry, substance abuse treatment centers and community mental health. For over ten years, he has served as a faculty member on the college’s student wellness committee — a confidential peer support system for medical students. In addition, Upton is a co-faculty advisor of the Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at the College of Medicine whose guidance to the group has made him a valued team member, known for being “a compassionate listener who seeks to improve the visibility and acceptance for all underrepresented in the medical community including students, faculty, staff and patients.”

Link to the 2014 Medical Reunion Weekend schedule.